Tag Archives: telemark

I’ve been knitting like a fiend for the Ravellenic Games. I picked a stranded shift dress to complete during the 16 days. I knit up my swatch and was ready to go for the Olympic opening ceremonies. I was making fairly good progress. At Stitch ‘n’ Bitch the Monday before last, I made a flip comment about how I should probably recheck my gauge, but that I wasn’t going to do it. Mostly I didn’t want to find a tape measure. This is something I do all the time. Not necessarily not check gauge, but pick the hardest route, but just out of laziness. Like when I don’t want to stand up and go across the room to get a darning needle, so I use my knitting needles in a roundabout way of threading through stitches. I would say that I am notorious for this behavior, but to be notorious, other people would probably have to take note of it. I do tend to make my life harder just out of dislike for an easy small action.

The dress was looking good, no?:

The pattern is the Sparkle! Dress by Shirley Paden. I am knitting it in Knit Picks Telemark, in Fjord Heather and Black. It is supposed to be a sport weight yarn, but really feels thicker than that to me.

Fast forward to Wednesday (6 days into the Games) at midnight. I decide to try this little puppy on. And it is gigantic! My gauge was crazy off. Like each repeat should be 7 inches, and I was closer to 9! I don’t know what happened! Well, I only did a small gauge swatch and I never checked on my progress, so that could be it. I spent a long time that night brainstorming how to salvage my progress. I could make it a skirt with a slit, and cut out the extra. I could make it a big puffy skirt. I could cut it open and make it a baby blanket. I could find another project to do for the Ravellenic Games and put this shit behind me.

(Notice how big this is?! And this is even over a denim skirt!)

My gauge was so off, that I wasn’t sure going down needle sizes would help me much. And I knew that if I was going to start over there was no way I would keep as many stitches. I ripped the whole thing out, and started over. I went down one needle size, and also cut out an entire repeat. 40 stitches less each round. I am now starting the armholes. I can’t be sure this isn’t going to be a real mess. But at this point, worst case scenario, I just cut off the top and it will be a knit skirt. That sounds doable. It seems unlikely that I will finish on Sunday, but you never know. I’ll post an update next week and let you know if I made it on time.